The iPad Lawyer | Wait. Your iPhone’s Screen is Not Broken!

Ordinarily, I write solely about iPad tips, tricks and techniques knowing full well that these secrets are really cross-device and you can use them to transform into a powerful iPhone user, as well. Today, however, I want to talk about a specific iPhone challenge that doesn’t impact iPad. It’s important enough – at least for me and every Apple genius or tech you come across – that I want to share it with you so you don’t lose your mind trying in vain to figure out what’s wrong with your iPhone screen.

Let me give you a little background first. I was traveling recently. I had put a Mophie battery charging case on my iPhone 5s. And I was in Chicago. Needless to say it was extremely cold. After only one day into my trip, I suddenly noticed that there was a kind of white lens flare effect (I called it a white blotch) appearing on the top right of my iPhone screen when I turned on certain apps (like Shazam and WorldMate). My first thought was that the cold had gotten to some of the display pixels. I then reasoned that perhaps I had inadvertently put too much pressure of some sort on the screen, itself.

Naturally, I did the standard soft reboot after clearing out running apps.

A little note . . . if you don’t know how to periodically clear out your iPhone’s and iPad’s memories, do the following to improve performance:

Step One: DOUBLE CLICK on the Home button (the small round button on the front of your device). This will bring up the carousel of apps that are running on your iPhone or iPad (this is what allows you to multi-task on your device).

Step Two: TAP and HOLD each of the apps and SWIPE your finger up. This will remove the app from the display and stop it from running in the background. (Power user tip – you can tap, hold, and swipe up to three running apps at one time if you really want to save time.) Do this with every app that you see running.

Step Three: PUSH the Home button. This will bring you back to your main screen.

Step Four: PUSH and HOLD the Home button and the Power on/off button simultaneously (the Power button is the small button on the top edge of your device). Continue to hold the two buttons until the white Apple logo appears. When the logo appears, release both buttons. Your device will now go through the soft reset cycle and is non-destructive to your data.

Okay, back to our story . . .

Having rebooted my iPhone and still seeing the white blotch appearing periodically when I started up certain apps, I had resolved that I would have to take my device back to Apple when I returned home for repair or replacement. Because I had some down time and because I can get a little obsessive with figuring out hacks and workarounds on my iOS devices, I continued to fiddle around with the iPhone and did a little research on the internet. After searching for “white blotch on iPhone screen,” I was pleased to find a solution to my situation. Now, I’m sharing it with you!

It seems I had done the unthinkable. I had put my Google Maps app on my Home screen for traveling to Chicago. Worse, I had put that particular app in Row 2, Column 3. Whether it’s the length of the app name that creates an algorithmic glitch, a bug in iOS 7, or just Google Maps, itself (I can’t replicate the problem putting any other long name app in that location), it seems that Google Maps in that precise location was creating an animation error when opening certain apps. This, in turn, caused the lens flare appearance in the top right of my screen. By the way, when I put Google Maps in Row 2, Column 2, the white blotch appears in the top left of the screen.

THE SOLUTION: Prepare to be amazed and awed . . . just move Google Maps out of Row 2 and Columns 2 or 3 to some other location. Poof! The white blotch is gone. (I have made certain that this is, in fact, both the cause and the solution by putting Google Maps back in the problematic locations, replicated the white blotch effect on the top right and left of my screen, and then moving the app to another place with complete resolution of the difficulty.)

I have, by the way, seen many forum and blog entries on the internet indicating that unawares people have taken their iPhones back to Apple and had their devices replaced because no one seems to have known about the problem let alone the solution. People have even struggled with complete restore situations and even rebuilding their iPhone apps and data from scratch. They didn’t know the answer. Now YOU DO. Until Apple remedies this iOS 7 challenge, you can now rest assured that your screen is not broken and your device is not failing.

Again . . . this does not appear to be a problem with the iPad. I have put Google Maps in the same column and row on the iPad without the white blotch showing up.